Tulane will play an exhibition Thursday (Nov. 1) without starting point guard Ray Ona Embo because of a patellar tendinitis injury that has sidelined him for multiple weeks.

As of last weekend, he was one of several players unable to play in a recent scrimmage because of various injuries.

According to coach Mike Dunleavy Sr., the Green Wave scrimmaged Saturday with no healthy point guards. Caleb Daniels, a sophomore, quickly returned from an ankle injury but the playing status for guards Jordan Cornish and Shakwon Barrett for the Thursday scrimmage against Loyola-New Orleans were uncertain, the coach said.

“We have some guys that are playing a little gingerly right now and trying to get through that,” Dunleavy said.

When healthy, Dunleavy believes this team will be deeper than the ones he had in his first two seasons at the school.

Ona Embo, a junior, averaged 10.1 points, 3.2 rebounds and a team-high 3.4 assists in 29 games with 28 starts last season.

Playing for Loyola will be former Tulane forward Sammis Reyes, a 6-foot-7 senior transfer who played in two games for the Green Wave last season. His move to a new school required only a move to the campus across Freret Street.

The exhibition will be the only game-like tune-up for the 6 p.m. Nov. 11 opener at home against No. 17 Florida State, a regional finalist from last season that lost to Michigan for a spot in the Final Four.

“I want to see us start creating a culture that we’ve bene trying to work on for the last two years in terms of really playing hard, trying to push the tempo of the game, push the pace of the game and have a lot of young guys become mature,” Dunleavy said. “We have five guys who will be playing for the first time (as freshmen or redshirt freshmen). Mainly, it’s for those five guys to figure out the speed of the game, the physicality of games, all those different things I think is important.”